After managing without mobile phones and the internet for most of his life, Steve was resently given an old Apple IPhone..

and this has opened up an whole new world to him, and again put him in touch with us at BSA Otter, and all of the friends still around from his years of competing in motorcycle offroad sport of all descriptions ...

Trials, Grass Track , Scrambles, (Schoolboy and adult).

Speedway with the Birmingham Brummies. and then going onto to be a major instigator in the New then BMX Sport.

But that is not half of the story because, Mr Steve Wilson from a very early age was a motorcycle frame constructor, and a lot like me.. from the same period. We wanted to try something new and different to the norm..

The machines he was involved with reads like a Whos-Who.

One of the first machines was a Triumph Cub trials machine with BSA Bantam frame.

But this broke, so Steve ordered a frame for the engine from Alf Ellis of ELstar fame.

After about six months the frame was constructed, and Steve fitted the Cub engine...And straight away started to get good results with the machine.

I think Steve was still working at BSA then and had met all of the comp shop crew and like me when you are in that envirement with most riding trial at week ends, you join in and do your best to become a Star too.

But Steve already had the constructing bug, and if you have got it, it never goes away..

So in the period of change at ELstar Motorcycles , where Andy Ross had put money into help Alf out, and then sold the remains to BobJoyner who wanted to run his own grass track and speedway team, a young seventeen year old Steve Wilson went to work for the concern.

Steve said he spent many a day on the band saw cutting sets of engine plates 22 sets in a day...

But the trials bikes were still number one to him, although Bob did not seem too interested.. Well Steve and the guys built a Bantam engined Elstar in their own time at the factory while Bob was away on one of his buying sprees. The bike was sat in the factory workshop upon his return.. and he asked what it was. Steve said they had built it for him to ride.. as he thought a Bantam engined machine might be the in thing, and development of a trials engine was going on with his old mates at BSA...

"Well you can't ride it " Bob said "it is not your bike, and you haven't paid for it".

Steve was in a dilemma because like all young men at the time he was only paid a pittance, I think I got Six Pounds a week at the time.

He had only one chance to get the bike he had built, and that was to get someone to pay for it.

Th good Samaritans were the Vale-Onslow family ,who stepped in and bought the Bantam machine from Bob Joyner..

And as you can see below, it was the right decision as Steve soon started to get results with the machine.

This is only the start of the Steve Wilson Story...

And I may ramble a bit later, as There is so much Steve and I talked about in an hour of conversation, and all this needs fitting into place..

But you can see... we now have a line of history that may never have been told. Thanks Steve.Ring you shortly...

The ELstar Bantam as it is today...

ELstar Bantam...And a bit of journalism from the time...

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Results; I will enlarge them Later...

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Results....

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Note Dave Paxton was on the biggest bike the 350BSA B40 and that Mike Mills was riding a Bantam.

There is a conection between Dave Paxton and Steve Wilson as well as being friends.?

Steve bought the twin pram used for Andy and Nick Paxton for his twins, and later sold the pram again to another family in the same situation...